Coal allocation: Adani Power arrives with 11 bids for six blocks

JSPL, Essar, GMR, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and Balco among contestants

Gautam Adani-promoted Adani Power has joined the race for coal block reallocation with all its might. Adani Power has made 11 bids for six of a total 19 blocks being auctioned under the second phase of the coal block allocation process. These blocks belong to Schedule-III, about-to-produce mines without any associated end-use infrastructure.

The technical bids for these 19 blocks was opened on Sunday. Naveen Jindal's Jindal Steel & Power, the biggest loser as the fallout of a Supreme Court's judgment in August 2014, closely followed with eight bids, four each for two blocks.

Two of its richest de-allocated blocks, Utkal B1 & B2 with a cumulative mineable capacity of 200 million tonnes (mt), were dropped out of the bid process, following a review petition in the Delhi High Court. 

Six blocks kept for the power sector would witness a massive fight in the e-auction, as the sector majors have put in multiple technical bids. Blocks for the unregulated sector, which has some of the biggest mines in its kitty, are likely to see the former owners put in a tough fight. Gare Palma-IV/8, with a capacity of 107 million tonnes, has 13 bidders in the fray, with four bids from JSPL alone. The block belonged to Jayaswal Neco.

Utkal-C coal blocks saw the highest bids of 16 with Adani Power putting three bids and Jindal Steel & Power two. GMR Energy, Lanco, Essar and Sesa Sterlite were also among the bidders. Ganeshpur (137 mt) coal block also witnessed high interest with 10 bids.

The names of those who submitted technical bids for the coming e-auction of Schedule-III mines were disclosed on Sunday. These will be evaluated by a multi-disciplinary technical evaluation committee to shortlist bidders for participation in the electronic auction to be conducted on the MSTC portal from February 25 running till March 3.

The government plans a two-pronged strategy for e-auction of cancelled coal blocks. Where end-use is generation of power, there will be a reverse auction. Unregulated sectors - steel, cement, iron ore and captive power generation - will follow the forward-bidding model.

The government promulgated an ordinance for re-allocating the blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court last year, citing these illegal.

Coal Block Name	End use	Coal Reserves (in million tonnes)	Previous owner	No.	Technically qualified bidders
Durgapur II/Taraimar and Durgapur II/Sariya	Power	211.37 and 91.67	BALCO and DB Power Ltd.	2	Adani Power, GMR Power & Energy
Mandakini	Power	96.84	Monet Ispat and Energy Ltd	6	Adani Power (2),Jindal Power, Mandakini exploration, GMR energy, Wigeon C Topworth Urja, BS Ispat, Grace Industies ommontrade,
Utkal-C	Power	208.77	Utkal Coal Ltd.(formerly ICCL)	16	Adani Power (2), GMR Mining, Jindal Power (2), Sinhapuri energy, RKM Powergen, Lanco, Essar Power, Sesa Sterlite, Sheesham Commercial,  Jindal India Thermal, DB Power, Lalitpur Power, Moneet Ispat, KSK Mahanadi
Jitpur	Power

  81.09 Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. 4 Jindal Power, Adhunik Power, jaipraksh Associates, Adani Power Ganeshpur Power
  137.88 Tata Steel Ltd. 10 GMR Chhatisgrah, Essar energy, Adhunik Power, RKM Powergen, Reliance Geothermal, Jindal Power, CESC, Adani Power (2), Jaiprakash Associates Tara Power
  259.47 Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Limited 10 Adani Power (3), Jindal Power, Rattan India, Lanco Amarkantak, KSK Mahanadi, Athena Chhatisgarh, Jaiprakash Associates, JSW Energy Moitra Unregulated 215.78 Jayaswal Neco Ltd. 3 Jayaswal Neco, SAIL, JSW Steel Rohne Unregulated 172.53 and 60.23 and 17.23 JSW Steel Ltd. and Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd. and Jai Balaji Industries Ltd 5 SAIL, JSW Steel, Everbest Steel, BALCO, HINDALCO Gare-Palma Sector-IV/8 Unregulated 107.2 Jayaswal Neco Ltd. 13 JSPL (4), Shri Bajrang Power & Ispat, Natural Resources Energy Ambuja Cements, HINDALCO, Rungta Mines, Sesa Sterlite, BALCO, Monnet Ispat, Jayaswal Neco Mandla-South Unregulated 72 Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation 9 Jaypee Cements, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Cement, Hindustan Zinc, Sunflag Iron & Steel, OCL iron & Steel, Andhar Cement, Godawari Power, Topworth Urja Dongeri Tal-II Unregulated 175 Madhya Pradesh State

Mining Corporation 3 Ultratech Cement, HINDALCO, Jaiprakash Associates KosarDongergaon Unregulated 22.51 Chaman Metaliks Ltd. 3 Topworth Urja, BS Ispat, Grace Industries Nerad Malegaon Unregulated 19.5 Gupta Metallics & Power Ltd. and Gupta Coalfields &
Washeries Ltd. 6 Topworth Urja, OCL Iron, Godawari, Sunflag, Grace Industries, Indrajit Power MarkiMangli-IV Unregulated - Veerangana Steel Limited. 2 BS Ispat, Grace Industries Jamkhani Unregulated 80 Bhushan Ltd. 11 JSPL (4), JSW Steel, Jindal Stainless, Bhushan Power & Steel, Godawari Natural Resources, HINDALCO, Sesa Sterlite, BALCO Brinda and Sasai Unregulated 34.72 and 26.35 Abhijeet Infrastructure
P. Ltd. (both the mines) 5 Sesa Sterlite, OCL, Eastern Range Coal, BALCO, Usha Martin Meral Unregulated 17.05 Abhijeet Infrastructure P. Ltd. 5 SKP Mining, Trimula, OCL, Eastern range coal, Usha Martin Dumri Unregulated 18 Nilachal Iron & Power

Generation and Bajrang Ispat Pvt. Ltd. 9 HINDALCO, Eastern range coal, Sesa Sterlite, Rungta Mines, BALCO, SS Natural Resources, Usha Martin,  Lakeview Deal Trade,  Jaiprakash Associates Lohari Unregulated 9.99 Usha Martin 8 SKP Mining, Araanya Mining, Trimula industries, Tata Sponge Iron, OCL Iron & Steel, Eastern range coal, Usha Martin, Rungta Mines  
*Unregulated means iron and steel, cement and captive power production